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he makes a charge so utterly devoid of reality that we must suppose his fanaticism has either disturbed his sanity or . overthrown , his veracity . He could not produce a single member of the party he maligns who is not anxious for peace ; and if a . large amount of money is squandered upon military or naval jobs , that contribute rather to our weakness than to our strength , Mr . Bright should remember that neither he nor his friends ever propose any practical measure of reform in these departments , nor do they trouble themselves to support any one who does . We do not complain that the gentleman ' s " harp has one unent is the horn of
changing theme ; " his instrum a bull of Bash an , which he blows continually , with an unvarying noise , and he seems never happy unless scattering insults among those who care for national honour , and believe that international duties are not entirely comprised in an exchange of goods . We have constantly advocated a reconstruction of the naval and military services upon principles of common sense and civilisation , but we cannot look at the state of Europe without giving our best support to those who are determined that England ' s position , and ability to discharge her moral obligations to the cause of
freedom , shall not be contingent upon the caprice of any other Power . On all sides there are possibilities , or probabilities of danger , which a rational policy may avert , but which the crotchets of the Peaee-at-any-price school would render imminent if carried into practice . It is evident that the old system of Europe is breaking up , not being strong enough to withstand the shock of arms at Magenta and Solferino ; and a host of complicated questions crowd upon the statesman ' s view . In Italy it has to be decided whether the principle
upon which Louis Napoleon claims to reign , and by which the English throne belongs to Queen Victoria and not to the representatives of the Stuarts , shall be violated or carried out ; and in Germany the contest for unity against the selfish interests of petty princes , although now enveloped in clouds of tobacco-smoke , may at any moment emerge in a shape fraught with revolution and war . At such a time we ought to be strong , and able to offer a firm support to any power that will maintain the right , and exercise a powerful repression against those who would be ready for evil purposes to disturb the general
peace . If the French Emperor , unable or unwilling to permit the extension of liberty at home , is desirous of making the influence of France upon other countries an object of honour and respect , he must be well aware that he cannot succeed alone in any important scheme , and he is entitled to expect . from England something more than a cold ex post facto assent to measures of Italian regeneration . We could wish that the nolicy of the French cabinet was more intelligible , but the Italian problem is far too difficult to admit of a dogmatic solution : and
those arrangements alone would be likely to anr awar that had the consent of the great European Powers , as well as the support of the Italians themselves . According to the telegrams the visit of the astute king of the Belgians has been quite successful , but what schemes or interests that potentate has been representing , is by no means apparent , although it cannot be supposed that they are Austrian in their tendency . We also hear that the ) Zurich conference is to end in . a treaty of peace that will not attempt to settle the question or the Duchies . It is likewise noticeable that although some of the Frenoh papers place difficulties in the way of the recognition of Italian claims , the personal interview of their
representatives with the Emperor have been assuring and satisfactory . These circumstances lead to the belief that the Italians of the north have the game in their own bands , and that if they will continue to maintain the firm , unexceptionable attitude that has hitherto characterised them , their union with Sardinia may become an accomplished fact . It is , however , oertain that other and less advantageous schemes will be urged upon their attention , that old jealousies between states imdlcjties will be appealed to , and no intrigues wanting to lead them Astray . 'It may prove a fortunate thing for the Italians that Austria should have plenty to do in endeavouring to thwart or prevent the German movement , which threatens a severer blow to her power
than even the late war with France . When unity is won—and its achievement is evidently only a question of time—^ Austria must occupy an inferior position to Germany as well as to France and Russia ; and as the new German Federation or State would be Protestant or neutral , the mischievous domination of Papal priestcraf t would receive the severest blow dealt upon it since the days of the Reformation . It is therefore no wonder that Austria and all the German Courts under her
influence are furious at the unity agitation ; and the small potentates will act with greater wisdom than ordinarily belongs to despots in difficulties if they do not attempt to suppress it by violent means , and thus change a constitutional movement into a revolutionary struggle . Previous rulers of France , like Louis Philippe , would doubtless have lent themselves to Austrian intrigues , and done then worst to thwart the rise of a first-rate power on the banks of the Rhine ^
If Napoleonism- is aggressive in its dreams , and looks to conquest in this direction , such will be its policy , but if no such course is adopted Europe will have a strong guarantee that the " Empire " is really desirous of being " Peace . " -In Paris the war feeling is certainly m abeyance , and songs of fighting and glory meet with little acceptance , while the same performers , warblin g sentiment or fun , receive abundant applause . So far there ^ hopes of being as quiet as the Quakers would wish ; and if over-excitable soldiers of the Empire want more glory and promotion , they can enjoy the China quarrel , or make the most of the difficulties with Morocco , and put into practice plans for its conquest that have long lain dormant in the archives of the ministry of war .
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CUSTOM-HOUSE EXTRAVAGANCE . A bettjbn has lately been published of the ports -and places in the United Kingdom approved by the Cords Commissioners of the Treasury for the purpose of warehousing goods liable to customs duties , together with the . amount of duties collected at each port , and the salaries and expenses incurred thereat . The plan of warehousing which this return illustrates , is entirely of modern origin , and therefore the purist Treasury of our own day—not the corrupt Treasury of Lord North , or that of Mr . Pitt—is responsible for the facts which we are about to lay before our readers . In this return , then , there are seven places in England at which the cost of collecting the revenue exceeds the value of revenue collected , and one in which it is very little less . Here is the list : — p . JDuties Salaries and . finces . collected . expenses . Aberystwith .... £ 372 .. £ 780 7 0 Arundcl 1 , 126 .. 1 , 235 5 0 Cardigan S 8 .. 302 13 0 Harwich ......... 033 ., 1 , 436 6 0 Iilanelly , 1 , 614 .. - 1 , 480 6 0 Haldon 707 .. 853 7 0 Mllford 1 , 242 .. 1 , 357 11 0 Bye ..... 887 .. 954 2 0 Total ,.. £ 6 , 529 ' , ' . £ 8 , 468 17 0 We must add two that are found in Scotlandr ,, nnnl . Duties Salaries and iiaccs . colleoted . expenaog . JBorrowBtounosa £ 721 .. , £ 750 4 0 Irvino r ... 028 .. - 043 11 0 ,. , Total .... £ 1 , 640 . ' . " £ 1 , 702 15 0 ^ OoUftSF . *! " * . ??!!]^ ' " * 10 » 171 18 ° Now it happens that every one of these plnoes in England , either as a contributory borough or a borough of itself , is interested in Bonding members to Parliament . What Maldon , or Harwioh , or Cardigan can possibly want a warehousing system for , we cannot guess ? but why the Treasury should desire to have a respectable Custom-house establishment in each lies on the surface . The collection of the Customs revenue costs ( inoluding the coast " guard eex'vice , though this is now placed under thq Admiralty ) about # 1 , 800 , 000 a-year , and the , judioious expenditure of such a sum annually amongst needy people may help to soouro the Treasury the immunity from public investigation which is necessary to preserve it in respect . Though Excise ofnoers and Custom-house officers must not vote at elections , they may have the art to influence them , and the prospect , ' expectation , or promise of a snug berth in a borough is more corrupting than even the possession . I < Yom this example , and from what occurs in the United States , it would seem that the Customs from
Commissioner ships — given sometimes to reward literary adherents to tide-waiters' ships are amongst the most priced means of Government retaining by corruption * its hold over the people We take from the New York Tribune of the 1 st instant a counterpart to our system . " The whole revenue-collecting system is a stupendous sham . When Mr . Cobb was called on by the Senate to make a clean breast of it , and say how many loafers he kept in his Customhouses , how much money these fellows collected , and licny much they got for doing it , he was compelled to acknowledge that at W ilmington , Delaware , the sum collected in 1857 ' was 2 , 004 ' 57 dols ,, to do which he employed eight men , whose salaries amounted to
15 , 848 -38 dols . —a dead loss of nearly 14 . 000 dols , At Annapolis , four men , ardent as a . southern sun could make them , were kept painfully busy a whok year in collecting 374 dols ., for which they received 983 dols . At Ocrakoke , North Carolina , 82 dols . were collected at a cost of 1 , 300 dols . At Port Oxford , in Oregon , 5 -85 dols . were' collected by two stout , able-bodied men , who received the insignificant sum of 2 , 702 dols . for this extraordinary effort . At Monterey , California , the amount collected reached the snug sum of 42 dols ., but it required three men to perform the feat . They performed a much greater one by drawing salaries to the amount of 7 , 050 dols . At Buffalo , in this State , 10 , 140 -53 dols . were collected , for which laborious service ten men received the comfortable sum of 16 , 896 -51 dols .
" Here are only six Custom-houses ^ whose gross receipts are 12 , 648 * 95 dols ., to collect which costs 44 , 779 * 83 dols ., thus making a dead loss of 32 , 130 -94 dols . " Our eight Custom-houses in England cost about as much as these six American Custom-houses ; but they collect more than twice as much revenue . It must , however , be remembered that , our Treasury is now—if we may believe its members and advocates—the purest of the pure ; while the
Government and the Treasury of the United States are avowedly overrun with corruption . At the Custom-houses in our list none of the articles most usually warehoused—wine , tea , sugar , coffee , spirits , tobacco- ^ -ever appear at all as contributing to the revenue . Remembering that the coastguard is every where stationed to prevent smuggling , quite exclusively of these Custom-house establishments , we conclude that they are established rather for the convenience of the Treasury than
the welfare of the State . With these specimens before us of what Customhouses are capable of , and to what uses they are put , we learn with satisfaction that the financial reform to be speedily inaugurated at Liverpool is to commence by a further reform of the Customhouse establishment . By removing from the list of articles sujected to duty the several hundred which yield fittle or no revenue , the pretext will be removed for employing the present immense staff of commissioners , surveyors , tide-waiterp , &c , whose services are even more annoyingtu trade than the loss of money caused by the amount of duties . It will lessen both the means of corrantimi and the will to be corrupted , t manual
difficulties embarrass Governments , and to escape them Governments pillage their subjects . Since the period when kings in Europe ceased to be he chief landowners , or were reputed to be wo owners of all the soil , Governments have htul no other means of action , but taxation . . -They have no power to put a single arm in motion nut max which they gather from the pockets of tlio peo ^ a Henoe , in modern times , financial questions , including the extension of taxation , by innumeraWQ devices ' , such as Customs and > xci 8 a duties , licenses , stamps , &c , interfering with nil busiuoss , and making life more a plague than enj oyment , have become of pre-eminent importance . in « is
reduction of Custom-house and other duties aw . merely a tea and sugar question , it is a question of freedom and pFoperty . We have taught Governments generally to respect personal noo " dom : they no longer wantonly , imprison mo people ; most of them respect religious freedom , w a great extent ; some of them are beginning to reapeot freedom of industry , but they nil roqwre to be taught respect for the property of then' sudieota . We therefore regard sound fliHUioini reform , understood in its widest sense , as the grow political business of the day ? and , they who dim
themselves forward to lead the peopjo on w » subject , assume as great a responsibility ns cvui men voluntarily undertook . They must bo elosoiv watched , but when they enter into the right paw
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vnfto THE . / LE . ADE . K [ Ho . 496 , Sept . 24 , 1859 .
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), Sept. 24, 1859, page 1082, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2313/page/14/
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